Somewhere in Between
by Symphony In Blue
Summary: For some strange reason Purdey's suddenly an officer of MI5, section D, but she has no idea how it happened. How will she get back to Gambit and Steed and her old life? Spooks crossover with The New Avengers. Some Harry/Ruth along the way. AU
1. Where am I?

**Disclaimer: I don't own Spooks or The New Avengers, nor any of the characters. I'm merely using them for my own enjoyment (wait, that sounded dirty). Anyway..no copyright infringement intended. **

**Author's note: I've never written a full-length piece for either series before, so I can only hope I'm doing the characters justice. Spooks characters are as they are at the beginning of 8.1 + Ruth.  
**

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**1**

She could hear a voice in the distant. At first she couldn't really make out what was being said, but slowly the voice became more clear. A man's voice, one she didn't recognise. She felt cold and uncomfortable, but it took her a while to figure out why. She was lying on the cold pavement of a busy street. She could hear people walking past her, even though she hadn't opened her eyes yet. That's the moment when she finally managed to comprehend what the man was saying.

"Are you alright Miss?"

She opened her eyes and noticed that the voice she'd just heard belonged to a policeman who had kneeled next to her in concern.

"Yes, I think so." She answered, sounding slightly confused. And she really was confused. She had no recollection of what had happened before, and how she came to lie here in the first place.

"I eh..I probably just fainted," she said by means of explanation. "But I'm alright now so I'd better be on my way. Thank you for your concern officer."

The policeman offered her his hand and helped her stand up. "You sure you're going to be alright?" he asked her. "Don't need me to drop you off anywhere or call anyone?"

"No, I think I'll manage. But thank you again." She smiled sweetly at him.

As the policeman handed over her handbag a badge fell out on the pavement. He picked it up and stared at it in surprise before giving it back to her. "Seems like you've arrived at your destination already. Have a good day." He said before he quickly made his way down the road without waiting for her reply.

She was left in a state of utter confusion as to why the kind policeman had made such a hasty retreat. The cause of his reaction clearly had something to do with the badge he had handed to her. Deciding the best way to find out was to actually look at it, so she held it to her face to get a better look at it. And what she saw made her gasp in surprise and utter disbelieve.

She had never seen that badge before in her life, but for some reason it had her picture on it together with her name; Purdey. Not that this was anything out of the ordinary, because she owned a badge with her picture and name on it for access to the Ministry. Though this one was very different; it was white, plastic, and much more high-tech than she'd ever seen before in her life. But this wasn't what had amazed her. Because it wasn't a Ministry pass. It said: MI-5, section D.

_I must be going mad_, Purdey thought to herself. Surely if she had joined MI-5 she would've remembered. All of a sudden she became more aware of her surroundings. She looked up and found herself standing outside Thames House, a.k.a. MI-5 headquarters. The people who walked past her in a hurried pace seemed oddly dressed, and the cars in the street looked strange too. Very different than what she was used to. All of a sudden Purdey felt very alienated, as though she wasn't living on the same planet anymore.

Conducting from the fact that she was holding an MI-5 employees pass, and was standing outside Thames House, she decided that the only way to find out what was going on was to go inside and see what happens. She walked up the steps to the front entrance and gasped in surprise as she saw her own reflection in the glass doors.

Her hair was still blonde and cut in a bob of some sorts, but it was different. Her hair was slightly longer and extremely straight. She was wearing dark blue very tight jeans, a white blouse and a black jacket, matched with black high-heeled boots. All very unlike her own wardrobe, or anything that was in fashion in the autumn of 1977. A feel of dread crept over her as she walked through the main entrance of Thames House, feeling very uncomfortable in her own skin, or her clothes for that matter, with absolutely no idea of what she was doing there. She flashed her badge at one of the security guards and thought she'd be done with it. Instead, she was made to walk through a detection port and someone put her handbag though some sort of strange machine. After all her personal belongings were given back to her, she was standing in the middle of an entrance hall, with absolutely no idea of where she had to go.

* * *

She looked around and noticed a dark haired woman who had come in right behind her. She tried to balance her handbag and a stack of files as she made her way through the entrance hall, tripping over her long coat and dropping a few files in the process. Purdey rushed over to her to help pick up all the papers that were now scattered over the floor.

"Thank you," the woman said as she smiled friendly at Purdey. "God I've always been clumsy, but it seems to be getting worse each day."

They both stood up again and Purdey noticed the other woman was a good few inches shorter than her. "Could you perhaps tell me where I should go? I've never been here before and I seem to be a bit lost. I'm looking for section D," she said as she showed the brunette her badge.

The woman's eyes lit up. "Section D? That's where I'm headed, follow me."

The woman introduced herself as Ruth Evershed, Intelligence Analyst of section D. They got into the lift and went to the 4th floor, where Ruth led her through a maze of corridors, through another door until they finally stood in front of what seemed to be the oddest entrance Purdey had ever seen in her life, which Ruth referred to as 'the Pods'. They were a kind of glass cubicles you had to step into, which then rotated around you until you could step out again at the other end. It seemed like something fresh out of a science fiction movie.

"You just hold your card here," Ruth showed her, "and then you can step right in."

She did as she was told, and as soon as she stepped inside the cubicle closed behind her and made a kind of swishing noise, before opening up at the other end, allowing her to step out again.

Purdey looked around in awe of the scene that unfolded before her eyes. Across the room, or 'Grid' as Ruth had called it, she noticed several desks. Some had files stacked upon them, and they all had a strange looking white screen standing on them. There were people quickly walking across the room while others were huddled over one of those screens, all too busy to notice her standing there and gawping. She snapped out of it as she heard Ruth talking to her.

"So shall I bring you over there then?"

"Sorry, what?" Purdey asked, now looking more confused than ever. She quickly recomposed herself as Ruth looked at her strangely. "I mean, I missed what you were saying."

"Since this is your first day here, shall I show you to Harry Pearce's office?" She repeated. "He's our section head."

"Yes please," Purdey nodded.

* * *

They took a right and went around a corner at the left and found themselves in front of a solid oak door. Ruth gave it a discreet knock.

A man's voice could be heard from the other side. "Enter."

The door opened and both women stepped into the office. It was a nice spacious room, with glass windows on one side looking out onto the grid. The wall on the opposite side was bright red, with a few shelves against it, and a desk placed in front of it. The man behind the desk, presumably Harry, got up and walked over to the two women.

"There's someone here to see you, Harry." Ruth said.

"Ah yes, our new junior case officer," he replied. "Thank you for showing her in Ruth.

The brunette exited the office again, leaving him and Purdey alone. She took in the man before her. He was about her length, slightly balding, and Purdey guessed around mid-50s. He smiled at her and stuck out his hand, which she politely shook.

"So you must be Purdey. I've heard a lot about you. Excelled in training I believe."

Purdey had no idea what was going on, but decided that for now she'd just have to play along. Hopefully there would be plenty of time later to find out what was going on and what exactly she was doing here. She wondered where Steed and Gambit were. In her absent mindedness she had missed the rest of what Harry had said to her, and he was now looking at her oddly, probably expecting her to give a reply. She quickly composed herself.

"I'm so sorry about that. I was miles away just now, probably due to my nerves."

"No problem, I understand completely. We will talk more later, but for now you can join us in the meeting room for the morning briefing."

* * *

She was led out of the office by Harry, towards double doors that slid open outwards, revealing a room with an oval table and several chairs around it in the middle. The others, presumably her colleagues, were already sat at the table.

Harry addressed the people at the table. "Everyone, this is Purdey. She'll be joining us as a new junior case officer."

He pointed at each of them around the table, mentioning their names as he did so. "This is Ros, Malcolm, Lucas, Jo, and of course you've already met Ruth. The formalities can wait until later. For now, let's start the morning briefing shall we?"

Purdey just had to sit in during the briefing and listen, but she hadn't been prepared for the things she was about to see and hear. Ruth had a tiny thing sitting on the table in front of her that she referred to as a 'laptop', which turned out to be a portable computer. This all seemed unbelievable in Purdey's eyes, as the only computers she'd ever encountered had taken up about half a room. The technical details Malcolm spoke about could just as well have been in Japanese, because she couldn't make out a single word of what he was saying. Purdey sunk back into her chair. She felt as though she was having a bad dream. None of this could be real, or could it? Her eyes wandered over the desktop of Ruth's laptop, and all of a sudden something caught her eye. The date; October 20, 2009.

She couldn't help but gasp for air as she read it. This just had to be a bad dream, there was no other way. How else could she explain that she'd just travelled 32 years forward in time!

No wonder she'd been completely baffled with all the technology she seemed to be surrounded with. The same went for the clothes she and the others had been wearing, as were the cars she'd seen in the street outside. Fascinating as it may be, she was stuck with one big problem: how on earth was she going to get back to her own time?

**TBC**

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Please review. I'd love to hear what you think of my little experiment!  
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	2. Just go along with it

_So no reviews as of yet, which I can understand. It might be a bit of an odd story this one, but once the thought popped into my head it wouldn't leave me alone. I will continue posting for now, because I can see that people are actually reading this, even if they're not reviewing. I have the fully finished story on my computer by the way, so I'm determined to post it all at some point.  
Again, reviews would be lovely, especially because I'm not really sure where I'm going with all of this._

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2**

Purdey was appointed her own desk on the Grid, also with one of those strange looking computers on it. She had no idea how it worked, and she felt uneasy at the thought of telling the others, since everyone seemed to be completely at ease in using them.

She sunk into her chair and let her head rest in her hands as she tried to regain her shaky breathing, while at the same time trying to think of her next move. Naturally she had to figure out what she was doing here, and of course how she had ended up here. After pondering over these questions for a good fifteen minutes, she came to the conclusion that she would just have to go along with whatever this world was supposed to be, and do her job as best as she could, until she found more clues about her current situation.

She looked up, and noticed the Grid was buzzing with activity. A few people were moving across the Grid balancing great piles of files in their arms, while others were hunched over a computer screen doing god knows what. She decided to take the bull by the horns and just jump in at the deep end. Working for MI-5 probably wasn't the same as working for the Ministry, but it still meant fighting the bad guys, so how different could it possibly be?

"Is there anything you'd like me to do?" she asked as she approached Ros, their Section Chief.

The older blonde eyed the newbie up and down suspiciously, before answering the question. Purdey sensed straightaway that Ros would be the most difficult to get along with.

"Yes, as a matter of fact. We've been monitoring the movements of a group of Russians who have been entering and leaving the UK on a regular basis over the past few weeks. Amongst them are four FSB officers, but the identities of the other five are unknown. Now we've been trying to find more on them, but no luck so far. We did manage to intercept some of their phone lines, but they're being very careful and are constantly speaking in code, which we're still in the process of decrypting. So I want you to help Ruth monitoring their calls and keeping an eye on the CCTV footage."

Purdey just nodded in response. Half of what Ros had just said had passed her by completely. FSB, CCTV, Purdey had no idea what she'd been on about. Hesitantly, she approached Ruth's desk.

"Ros told me to come and help you uh, monitoring the Russians?" she said.

"Good, I see she's not making life too difficult for you on your first day," she replied with a smile.

* * *

Purdey was glad when the day drew to a close. It had been long and tiring, and she longed to be at home, wherever 'home' was supposed to be. She had only just started to realise that she had no idea where to go after work. She didn't know where her house was, if she even had a house. She decided that going back to where she lived in the 70s was her safest bet, so she got on a bus, hoping that this would be the case. During the bus drive she rummaged through her handbag and retrieved some keys, one of which looked suspiciously like the one of her little basement flat.

As she got out of the bus and walked into her street, she breathed a sigh of relief. It was the first hint of familiarity she'd seen all day. The street looked more or less unchanged, apart from a few different front doors, and the inevitable modern looking cars parked outside on the road.

She walked down the 21 steps, heart pounding in her chest as she did so. She stuck the key into the lock, and was surprised to see that it opened. She gasped in surprise as she stepped inside. It was unmistakably her flat, but at the same time it was completely different. The interior was no longer lilac, but a creamy white colour with furniture in the same colour to match. On one wall hung a large flat screen, which Purdey identified correctly as a television. She closed the door behind her and let herself sink into one of the white leather sofas in the sitting area, closing her eyes for a moment. There was only so much a girl could handle in one day.

* * *

Purdey awoke from a restless sleep, still feeling no better than before. For a moment she was disorientated, and panicked as she took in the seemingly unfamiliar surroundings. But then she remembered where she was, disappointed at the realisation that it hadn't all been a bad dream after all. She glanced at the odd looking clock on her bedside table, and noticed it'd only just gone four in the morning. She wasn't due on the Grid for another five hours, but decided to get up anyway since sleep was no longer an option.

She wandered into the small kitchen to make herself a cup of tea, and then retired to the sitting area to curl up on the sofa for a while. As she sat down, she realised she was sitting on something hard. But before she could check what it was, the television suddenly sprang to life, blasting its noise through the small flat and nearly giving Purdey a heart attack.

The thing she was sitting on was a black, long rectangular thing, with numbers and symbols on the wide variety of buttons it contained. It also had a power on/off button, which made Purdey quickly realise that it had to be somehow connected to the television. After fiddling around with it for a bit, she had it more or less figured out and started flicking through the channels. She was amazed at the amount of channels that were available, but appalled at the sight of what was being broadcast. She eventually stumbled upon a channel called 'The History Channel' and decided to watch it, figuring she could do with a crash course in events that had happened in the last thirty years.

For the next few hours, Purdey went through a whirlwind of amazed, shocked and horrified emotions as she watched recent historic events unfold before her very eyes. The end of the Cold War, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Gulf war, the end of Apartheid, the events of 9/11 and so on. It was hard to believe how much had happened, and how much the world had changed.

Purdey decided she had seen enough for now, and needed some time to let everything sink in. Another look at the clock revealed that it was now seven-thirty and that she needed to start getting ready for work.

**TBC**


	3. In search of answers

_Thanks for the lovely reviews, subscriptions and favourites. I really appreciate it! Bit of a short chapter this time, the next one will be longer :)_

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**3**

It was still early when Purdey stepped through the pods and entered the Grid, but she wasn't the first one to arrive. The lights were on in Harry's office, giving the space a red, eerie glow. As she looked to her left, she noticed that Ruth was already at her desk, tapping away behind her computer screen. Both were so succumbed into their respective work that they didn't notice her come in, so Purdey slumped behind her own desk and went in search of the 'on' button of her computer.

One by one the other officers started to arrive, and in no time the Grid was a hive of activity. Just after 9 o'clock Harry called everyone into the meeting room for their daily briefing. Purdey was glad for the early morning crash course in contemporary events the television had given her, since it made the morning meeting that much more bearable. She now knew that the FSB had formerly been the KGB and all the information, apart from the technical aspects, just made so much more sense now.

* * *

The meeting soon came to an end and Lucas and Jo went off to follow up a lead that might give them a clue about the increased Russian activity in London over the past few weeks, while Harry and Ros were off to Whitehall for a meeting with the Home Secretary. This just left Malcolm, Ruth and Purdey. The former quickly disappeared into what was called the 'forgery suite', mumbling something about some new tracking devices that had to be tested. Ruth handed Purdey a couple of files on the Russians that had already been identified, and asked her to speed-read and cross-reference them with the very little Intel they'd already gathered. Purdey eagerly accepted the assignment and took the files over to her desk, glad of the fact that she got to work with paper files instead of computerised ones.

* * *

On her lunch break Purdey wandered through the corridors of Thames House, glad to be away from the hustle and bustle of the Grid for a short while. She noticed a staircase that led to the roof and, deciding she could do with some fresh air, she climbed it. She leaned on the balustrade of the roof terrace as she gazed across the London skyline. She noticed the familiar landmarks of the city, and the few that were alien to her such as the Gherkin and the London Eye. It gave London, the city she loved dearly, a sense of unfamiliarity that she didn't like one bit. She let her mind wander for a moment, away from Thames House and the strange world she'd found herself in. She wondered where Steed and Gambit were, and if they were even in this world with her. She decided she needed to try and find them as soon as she had a spare moment.

* * *

"Ruth, could you help me with something?" Purdey asked the Intelligence analyst a few hours later.

"What is it you want to know?" The brunette asked as she approached her desk.

Purdey paused for a moment, thinking of the best way to pose her question. "I er..want to check up on some people whose names came up in those documents you gave me. So I was wondering if you could show me how the database works."

Ruth was still slightly baffled by the blonde's lack of experience with technology, but let it pass and explained to her patiently how to use the various databases section D had at their disposal. She went through all the procedures rather quickly and Purdey made sure not to let her mind wander for a split second, in case she missed anything vital.

"So with this program I can check backgrounds and personal details of any name I feed into the system?" Purdey asked.

"Yes, well of British citizens and any other person who's legally residing in the UK at the moment." Ruth answered.

Purdey thanked her for her assistance and quickly went to work. If Steed and Gambit were here in 2009 they should be in the system, and it shouldn't be too difficult to track them down.

She was surprised not to find a single trace of either man in any of MI-5's databases. She'd tried their full names, possible pseudonyms they could be using, and even went as far as checking up on their family members. None of them could be found. Purdey felt a slight pang of fear settling in the pit of her stomach. Up until now she'd just been confused about her whereabouts and what this world really was, but the thought in the back of her mind that Steed and Gambit might be here somewhere too had been strangely comforting. Now she had the feeling she was well and truly alone, with no sense of familiarity and nobody in this world she could truly talk to.

She looked around her and noticed that the Grid was nearly empty. As far as she could tell only Jo and Malcolm had remained while the rest was elsewhere, either on business or they'd just taken an early night. Purdey needed to get away from this place for a bit. She needed time to clear her head and think properly.

Figuring nobody would miss her anyway, she quietly slipped away and exited Thames House within no time. She strolled around aimlessly for a while, without really noticing where she was going. She tried to think, tried to make sense of everything that had happened to her. Had she time travelled? No, that option was too ridiculous to even consider. Was she in some sort of strange, parallel universe perhaps? She really hoped she wasn't being used as some mad scientist's guinea pig right at this moment. Purdey couldn't help but giggle slightly at the ludicrous thoughts her mind managed to conjure up.

**TBC**


	4. Revelations

_I sort of forgot to update this for a while. So yeah, sorry about that. Hope you enjoy this chapter though!_

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**4**

Purdey looked up and took in her surroundings for the first time since she'd left Thames House. Unintentionally she had walked in the direction of the Embankment, and now found herself staring at the Houses of Parliament across the river. This at least gave her a sense of familiarity and would've made her feel a bit calmer, hadn't it been for the London Eye that she could just spot out of the corner of her eye on the right.

She sat herself down on one of the many benches, and just looked on as the world around her continued to move at a steady pace. She looked at the many couples who strolled past, just enjoying the view and each other's company, and it reminded her of one late afternoon a few weeks back when she'd taken that same stroll here with Gambit. Not that she thought of them as a couple, because they certainly weren't, but it had made her feel happy and content. It had been a relatively warm day and they hadn't had much work to do at the Ministry, so Gambit had suggested they'd go for a walk. She'd hooked her arm in his and together they'd just walked and chatted away happily and laughed at each other's jokes. All in all it had been a pretty perfect day.

Purdey snapped out of her daydream as she noticed two familiar figures approaching her. It was Harry and Ruth, who were holding hands whilst they casually strolled along the Embankment. This took her by surprise. She had noticed the quick glanced that passed between them from across the room, but Purdey had thought it to be just that. She wondered if the rest of the team knew about this personal involvement of their Section Head and Intelligence Analyst. Realising that the two were sharing a private moment, Purdey figured that it was best if they didn't see her and she quickly disappeared from view.

She found it difficult to suppress the pang of sadness she'd felt in her chest as she quickly started walking back. After Larry she'd gone on various casual dates with other men, but none of them had ever resulted in anything more substantial. And she was fine with that; in fact, for a long time she hadn't been able to bear the thought of being in a relationship with any man. She'd been far too emotionally damaged for that. But she had to admit to herself that lately she had started to feel as though something was missing, although she couldn't quite put her finger on what it was.

Companionship maybe? That special someone with whom she could share her hopes, fears, mind boggling thoughts and ideas. Though she already had someone, a friend to share these things with. Gambit. She quickly pushed the thought to the back of her mind again. This was getting ridiculous now. She didn't even fancy Gambit, or did she? No, she was probably just clinging to any spark of familiarity in this world where she felt so utterly lost and alone. And besides, Gambit didn't even exist in this world. She'd give this some more thought when she returned, from wherever this place was that she was in now.

The chilly October wind was getting to her now, and she wrapped her coat more tightly around herself. Knowing that she probably wouldn't sleep tonight anyway after all of today's revelations, she decided to return to Thames House and catch up on some surveillance on the Russians.

* * *

Purdey entered the Grid through the pods, expecting to be the only one there at this late hour. She instantly noticed the solitary desk lamp that was switched on somewhere to her left, with Ruth still engulfed in one of her reports.

"I guess I'm not the only working late" Purdey said by means of greeting, and smiled at the other woman.

"I do this quite often" Ruth replied. "I find it the best time of day to work when I've got complicated matters to work through. The silence helps me to keep a clear head and makes me able to focus on what I'm doing."

Purdey grabbed a chair and placed it on the other side of Ruth's desk before sitting herself down on it. "Ruth, can I be very bold with you for a moment?"

The brunette looked up. "I don't see why not" she replied, mildly surprised.

"Are you and Harry together?" she asked, no longer able to constrain her curiosity.

Ruth looked down at her hands and started fidgeting with the hem of her shirt, something she always did when she felt nervous or embarrassed.

Finally she answered. "Yes, well more or less. We're getting there slowly but surely."

Before she knew it she started telling Purdey her whole life story. She told her of her history with MI5, and Harry. About the Cotterdam case, and how she took the blame in order for Harry to remain where he was. About their bittersweet goodbye kiss on the docks, and how she thought she'd never see him again.

Ruth was really on a roll now. She started talking about how she went to France and Italy first, but decided she didn't like it there and got on a boat to Cyprus. She started working at the local hospital in Polis, where she met George. She instantly felt a connection, though she didn't call it love. It was more of a bond build on close friendship and mutual respect, though she suspected that George was in fact in love with her. Feeling the urge to really belong somewhere and seeking stability in her life, she almost immediately accepted when George had asked her to move in with him and his young son, Nico. She'd been fairly happy with the way her life had turned out, though she had to admit that there was something missing. A hole in her heart that could only be filled by one person: Harry.

Then she told Purdey about the whole incident involving Baghdad and the uranium, and how they narrowly escaped Mani's men and fled to England. She talked about how George had been killed, tears gathering behind her eyelids now, and how poor Nico had almost been killed in the process as well.

By the time Ruth had finished her story, Purdey almost didn't know what to say.

"My, you've been through a lot haven't you?" she said.

Ruth nodded. "I can't say it was easy, but I feel like I'm finally getting my life back on track."

"Well at least you had Harry to turn to" she said, reaching out and squeezing Ruth's hand lightly by means of comforting her.

"Not exactly" Ruth said. "I didn't just go running to him afterwards. Too much had happened, and I suppose it was too painful for both of us. I made a few hesitant moves towards him, but he hardly responded to them. I thought he had stopped caring, but in fact he was just doing it to protect me. He didn't want to seem too eager. But then a few months ago he finally mustered up the courage to ask me out to dinner, and things have only been going upwards from then on. But like I said, we're taking things very slowly."

"That's beautiful" Purdey sighed. "Almost like one of those love stories you see in movies."

"Well not quite like that" Ruth grinned. "Oh and I've told you all this in strict confidence. I don't think anybody on the Grid knows about us, and we'd like to keep it that way for just a little while longer."

"Don't worry Ruth, your secret's safe with me", Purdey reassured her with a smile.

* * *

The two women worked well into the night, cross-referencing data they had gathered from various sources. Purdey was finally getting into the swing of things, and was even starting to enjoy the work she was doing. But most of all she was amazed by Ruth's capabilities as an analyst. She had a unique way of looking at things from different perspectives, so it wasn't hard to imagine why Section D had employed her.

Around 3 am it seemed as though they had finally made a breakthrough. The increased traffic of Russians entering and leaving the country was just a decoy to cover up a much bigger operation that was being carried out in and around London. What kind of operation it was exactly they didn't know yet, but they hoped they would find out the next day during the morning briefing. Both women decided they'd done all they could for today and that they should go home and get at least a few hours of sleep.

By the time Purdey arrived home it was nearly 4 in the morning, and although she was exhausted she found she couldn't sleep. So much had happened to her today and she no longer knew which way was up. The revelation that Gambit and Steed didn't seem to exist in this world had shocked and frightened her beyond belief, but at the same time she found she started to enjoy her work and that she liked her colleagues very much.

Had she been in her own, 'normal' world, she would've praised herself lucky for working with a team such as this one. All of this only added to her confusion about what this world really was, and if these people were real or not. Eventually she managed to fall into a restless slumber of which she awoke 3 hours later, just in time for work.

**TBC**


	5. Time for some action

_Thanks again for the reviews, I really do love getting them (and I'm not ashamed to admit it). This story was completed before series 9 started, so I couldn't have known that they'd suddenly bombard Ruth as the 'Russia specialist'. Which is why Lucas is the only one in my story who knows Russian. _

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**5  
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The information Purdey and Ruth had uncovered tied in nicely with the phone conversations Malcolm had managed to intercept. Lucas listened to them first thing the next morning, as he was the only one on the Grid who spoke Russian.

Just as he finished listening to the last conversation, Harry summoned them all to the briefing room. He got straight down to business, feeling there was no time to lose. "Lucas, what have you managed to find out?"

"It appears they're smuggling large quantities of weapons into the country. These weapons are part of an operation to be carried out on a target in central London. Unfortunately they remained rather vague about said target, so I've not yet managed to find out who or what it is," he answered.

"Well at least we're getting somewhere," Harry said. "Did you hear anything about where they're keeping the weapons?"

"I don't know the exact location, but I think I've got a pretty good idea of where they're hiding them," Lucas said.

Harry nodded his approval. "Good, I suggest you check the place out. Take Purdey with you."

While Lucas and Purdey made a hasty retreat, Harry addressed the rest of the team. "The rest of you will remain on the Grid. Malcolm, keep monitoring those phone calls. Ruth and Jo, try to gather as much data on these men as you possibly can. Ros, we'll go and exchange some pleasantries with the Russian ambassador."

* * *

Purdey and Lucas arrived back at the Grid two hours later. They had taken a look at the warehouse where the Russians were thought to keep their weapons, but they hadn't had a chance to go in, as the place was too heavily guarded. Whatever they were keeping there, it wasn't meant for just any minor operation. They were planning something big.

Ros and Harry arrived back not too long afterwards, and they hadn't had much luck either. The Russian ambassador didn't seem to know what was happening, or was just very unwilling to disclose any information. As it stood, they had gotten no further than they had been this morning.

* * *

As per usual, Ruth was already present when the rest of the team entered the Grid the next morning. But this time it didn't seem as though she was just early, but rather as if she'd been there all night. Her hair looked messy, and the dark circles under her eyes gave away that she hadn't slept at all. But oddly enough she didn't show any sign of fatigue, and she couldn't wait to get everyone assembled and share the information that she'd found.

When everyone had finally gathered in the meeting room she didn't waste her time getting started, taking charge of the morning briefing without even giving Harry the chance to have a say in the matter.

A few gasps were clearly audible when the documents found by Ruth made their way onto the screen.

It showed that Ruth had managed to break into the inboxes of prominent members of the Russian opposition party, as well as hack several restricted areas of their official website. This showed an enormous amount of documented conversations between the party members and high-ranking members of the Russian mafia, all discussing a planned attack on the president and a few more senior members of his cabinet.

"And that's not all I found," Ruth continued. "Apparently they'll try and pull off the attack during the Russian state visit next week, thereby trying to make it look like a British attack, whereas it is in fact an insider's job."

"Oh my god," was all Jo could say, while the rest of the team kept quiet.

"Brilliant work Ruth," Harry said. "It seems no institution in the world is safe from you."

"I'd like to think so," Ruth smiled as she replied.

Harry took over the morning briefing after this, telling everyone to keep digging for more information, and very soon everyone was on their way to perform their assigned tasks.

* * *

It proved quite difficult to find anything remotely significant to the planned attack, and it wasn't until late afternoon when they finally had a breakthrough.

Malcolm had been gathering flight information on all flights to and from Moscow, starting on the day the increased activity had been first noticed, all the way through to the day before the attack. He had picked out every passenger who seemed only slightly suspicious, had checked their background details, and had cross-referenced these details with their travelling habits.

As everyone gathered in the meeting room for the second time that day, Malcolm showed them four men whom he thought could very well be linked to the attacks. They were all travelling on British passports, all had return tickets from Moscow to London and back, and he couldn't find records of these men anywhere. By adding up all these pieces of information it was easy enough to conclude that these men were Russians travelling on false British passports, thereby trying to fly below the radar and having easy access to the UK.

"All four of them will arrive at Heathrow tomorrow morning at 9 o'clock," Malcolm said as he concluded his findings.

"And we'll be there to pick them up as soon as they go through customs," Harry continued. "Good work Malcolm."

Harry continued. "I will inform Scotland Yard of the fact that there'll be people coming in tomorrow on false passports. However, their arrests should be kept quiet. Ros, Jo, you two will be at Heathrow tomorrow morning to assist the police with the arrests. Then the men will be transported back here to Thames House. Ruth and Malcolm, you'll be in charge of monitoring CCTV at Heathrow. Purdey and Lucas, you'll be at Heathrow as well, but try and stay out of sight. Check for anything suspicious, see if the others pick up any tails, that sort of thing. I don't think there's much more we can do right now, so I suggest everyone goes home and has an early night. Tomorrow's going to be an important day."

Everybody nodded in agreement and started to move out of the meeting room, gathered up their things and went home.

Purdey felt both nervous and excited as she caught a bus home. This was the first time she was going to be a part of anything major since joining section D, and she could only hope she was up to the job.

**TBC**


	6. What's going on?

_Sorry for the delay in updating guys. I was distracted by uni and other fics, mainly H/R. Hopefully this story will still interest some people :) xx_

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**6**

The arrests the next morning took place without any real problems, and soon Ros, Lucas, Jo and Purdey made their way back to Thames House with the four men in custody. As far as they could tell they hadn't picked up any tails, so thus far everything had gone according to plan.

The men were put in cells underneath Thames House, and the foursome went back to the Grid to discuss how they'd progress from here.

Ros assumed that she and Lucas would be doing the questioning, but just as they entered the Grid Harry was about to leave.

"Ah good, you're back," he said. "I'm just off to see the Home Secretary, Ros will you come with me?"

"Sure Harry," Ros said, seeming reluctant. It wasn't hard to tell that she'd much rather stay and interrogate the Russians than be in a boring meeting with the Home Secretary.

As they left through the pods, Lucas turned to Purdey. "So, how's your Russian?" He asked.

"It's rusty," Purdey replied with a smile.

"That'll do," Lucas said, and they both returned down to the cells to start the interrogations.

* * *

Purdey didn't have a lot of interrogating experience, and watching how Lucas went about it was absolutely fascinating. They had agreed to a specific technique beforehand, and it had brought them the best possible results.

They had decided to interrogate the men in pairs, instead of all four separately. At first everything would be conducted in English, without letting the men know that they understood Russian. This approach paid off, because once they put more pressure on the men they started panicking, and began discussing their own strategies and cover stories in Russian, oblivious to the fact that Lucas and Purdey could understand them.

The moment they let the men know they'd been listening in to their private conversations all along, they knew there was no way back, and started spilling more details about their planned attack. Most of this was done in Russian, and Purdey's knowledge of the language was indeed rusty, but she understood enough of what was being said to know what was going on. Lucas on the other hand, having spent eight years in a Russian prison, was fluent in the language, and understood every detail of what the men were telling them.

Mission accomplished, Lucas and Purdey returned to the Grid to inform the rest of the team about what they'd found out. Together they walked back through the long, narrow corridor, towards the lift that would take them back upstairs. They talked a bit more about the case and everything they'd discovered, when Purdey suddenly stopped dead in her tracks.

_Purdey!_

She let out an involuntary gasp.

Lucas stopped walking too, noticing something was amiss. "Are you ok? Purdey, I said are you ok? Can you hear me?"

Hearing Lucas talking to her, she snapped out of it. "Did you just hear a voice?" She asked him.

"Not apart from our voices, no." He answered. "Is anything the matter?"

"No, it's fine. Never mind." Purdey replied. But she could've sworn she heard a voice. And that particular voice sounded far too familiar to her to miss it. There was no mistake to be made here; she had heard Gambit's voice.

* * *

Back on the Grid they gathered everyone around to tell them about what they'd found out.

The attack was to be carried out in Whitehall, during a public appearance on the first day of the president's state visit. Smoke bombs would be used to cause distraction and panic amongst the crowd, and then the president and at least 4 other cabinet members would be taken out by snipers. Neither of these men were the mastermind behind these plans, so this was all they'd been told about the nature of the attack. They also disclosed the location of the warehouse where the weapons were being stored, and told them that it also functioned as their HQ. Lucas and Purdey had already known about the warehouse, but now at least they had a confirmation that they had been on the right track all along.

After they had finished sharing all they had managed to find out with the rest of the team, Harry took over again. There were only three days left before the start of the state visit, so in order to let everything go smoothly and prevent the attacks from happening they had to act quickly. Ros joined Lucas for the further interrogation of the men, to try and get more names and information out of them. Purdey and Jo got assigned a stack of files to wade through, while Ruth and Malcolm worked on the technical side of the state visit by checking CCTV cameras in Whitehall and trying to uncover the weak spots.

In the meantime Harry was off to Whitehall again, this time to inform the Home Secretary of the latest developments, and what they had uncovered regarding the state visit.

* * *

By the time Purdey was ready to pack up and go home it was late, really late. The whole day had been a rollercoaster of events without time for a break, so the entire team was positively exhausted. After she had bid goodnight to her colleagues she had only just managed to catch the last bus home. She walked the last few minutes from the bus stop to her house, enjoying the fresh air and the silence.

That's when she heard it again.

_Purdey!_

And for the second time that day she froze.

_Purdey, wake up!_

Again it had been Gambit's voice. She could instantly recognise that voice out of thousands. She increased her pace and hurried home. The silent streets and the darkness suddenly didn't feel so welcoming anymore.

As soon as she entered her flat she dropped her bag and keys, and moved to sit on the sofa before her legs went from under her. Over the past couple of days she had slid into her new routine of going into work at MI5 with surprising ease. But these strange occurrences today had been a real eye opener, and reality had hit her hard. All of a sudden she again realised the seriousness of her situation. She was in a place without knowing how she got there, and with no means of getting home. All had been going ok until she had started to hear that voice, _his_ voice!

Purdey took a couple of deep breaths and tried to get a grip on her thoughts and emotions. She decided to see the Russian operation through to the end. There had to be some significance in that, even though she hadn't been able to figure it out yet. Once that was out of the way, she'd start to figure out a way to get home.

After she had managed to calm herself down a bit, she started to feel how exhausted she really was. She soon fell asleep, dreaming of brollies, bowler hats, Russian spies, and a certain dark haired man.

**TBC**

**Please review if you have the time :)  
**


	7. Time is running out

_Sorry for the massive delay again! I hope anyone's still reading this. One more chapter to come after this one._

* * *

**7**

It was the first day of the state visit. Everyone had been up since the crack of dawn, trying to get all the necessary preparations done in time for the Russian President's arrival, which was just two hours away.

Ruth and Malcolm were performing some last minute CCTV checks to make sure that no details could possibly be missed. In the meantime Ros, Lucas, Jo and Purdey were preparing to leave for Whitehall, the first stop of the planned activities.

Since they had enough reason to believe that the assassination would take place there, the four of them were going to place themselves in the crowd of people close to the President and Prime Minister in order to stop the attack. It wasn't a watertight plan, but it was all they could do with the very limited amount of information they had been able to get out of the men they'd arrested.

As they arrived at Whitehall they could see that quite a lot of people had already gathered there. A lot of officials from all over the place, and quite a large amount of cabinet ministers and other representatives. A bit further away stood some groups of protesters, mainly ones on behalf of human rights organisations. And then there were some other bystanders: people who just happened to be passing and wondered what was going on, and other people who had come just out of curiosity. All four spooks realised that if anything were to happen today, total panic would ensue and there would be massive consequences.

Soon they were all in position. Ros was standing right next to the podium where the President and Prime Minister would deliver their speeches. She was disguised as a member of staff in charge of security. Jo was sitting in the crowd not too far from the podium. Lucas and Purdey would be patrolling the area throughout the event, looking for irregularities in the crowd and just generally keeping an eye on everything.

They didn't have to wait long before a long train of black cars pulled up and the Russian delegation, accompanied by the Prime Minister, came into the picture. They made their way to the podium on a red carpet, stopping several times to pose for the numerous journalists assembled, and to salute the guards who stood lined up all the way down the red carpet. _'So far so good', _Purdey thought to herself.

They had now reached and climbed the podium. The President and his delegation took their seats, while the Prime Minister stepped forward to give the opening speech of the day. This lasted for a good ten minutes, in which everything went according to plan. The four Spooks stayed in position, as to not draw attention to themselves, but continued to scan the crowd and the area. Ruth and Malcolm were in a surveillance van nearby, and for the time being they had given the area an all-clear as well.

Suddenly Purdey felt Lucas nudging her arm. She looked up at him, and he discreetly pointed to his right. While the whole crowd was standing still, one man was suddenly on the move and he seemed to be in a hurry. Both Spooks realised there was no time to lose and decided to follow the man, at the same time trying to be as discreet as possible.

They followed him to the back of a nearby building where they saw him putting a balaclava over his head before starting to mount the fire escape. They waited a few seconds before following up. The man was so engulfed in whatever task he was about to perform that he didn't notice he was being followed.

Lucas and Purdey followed him all the way to the rooftop from which they had a clear view of the crowd below. By now it had become clear that they were following a sniper who had been assigned to assassinate the President. They knew they had to act fast, or else mass panic would ensue in the crowd, not to mention the diplomatic crisis that would spring from this should anything go wrong.

They also realised they couldn't call for backup from Ros or Jo because there simply wasn't enough time. The two of them would have to make do. They decided to split up, hoping to catch the sniper by surprise if they ambushed him from two sides. There roof was completely flat so there was nowhere to take cover, which meant they had to act fast, or else they'd be spotted.

Both Spooks sneaked up to the sniper as quietly as they could. He was too busy preparing his weapon and putting it into position to notice he was being ambushed. And also his balaclava limited his sight to the sides of his head, which worked in their advantage.

Purdey was so desperately trying to keep quiet that she didn't see where she was going. She nearly tripped over a small rock, and let out an involuntary gasp. The sound she'd produced was next to nothing, but it was enough to alert the sniper, who immediately aimed his weapon at her. Purdey was frozen to the spot. She couldn't decide if she was scared or annoyed. Scared because someone was aiming a gun at her, annoyed because she had messed up her first op.

After mere seconds, but what had felt like a lifetime, Lucas appeared behind the sniper and placed his gun at the back of his head, telling him to drop his weapon. The man refused, instead continued to aim his gun at Purdey.

Chaos ensued as Lucas tried with all his might to disarm the sniper, which resulted in a struggle between the two men. The sniper no longer held Purdey at gunpoint, an opportunity she seized to try and help Lucas. Perhaps she shouldn't have interfered, but she felt she couldn't just stand there and do nothing.

The last thing she heard before the back of the gun connected with her head was someone shouting her name, but it wasn't Lucas' voice.

**TBC**


	8. All's well that ends well

_Just a short last one. I felt I had to finish posting this before the start of the new year. Thanks so much to everyone who has stuck with this till the end, and thank you for the kind reviews. They mean the world to me._

* * *

**8**

"Purdey!"

No reaction.

Again, but louder this time. "Purdey!"

She knew that voice, she was certain of it. But how? She wondered. It wasn't possible. Or could it?

"Come on Purdey-girl, wake up."

Finally she opened her eyes, and for a moment she felt disoriented. She was no longer on a rooftop. Instead she was inside somewhere, lying on a sofa. For the second time in a relatively short period, Purdey felt lost and confused. Only this time she did have a recollection of what had happened before. She had been there, on that rooftop, together with Lucas. And now she was in a room that seemed vaguely familiar, though it wasn't her basement flat. Something strange was going on, but she was sure she would get to the bottom of this.

Suddenly she heard the voice again.

"Ah, there you are, back in the land of the living Purdey-girl. You were fast asleep a moment ago. You wouldn't have woken up, even if someone had detonated a bomb right next to you."

Purdey's head snapped up and she looked straight into the green eyes of a broad grinning Mike Gambit.

"Gambit!" she exclaimed, before throwing herself into his arms and burying her face in his shirt. "You've no idea how much I've missed you."

"Well I know I'm hard to resist Purdey, but I was only in the next room you know," he grinned.

"Were you?" she asked, looking surprised. "How long was I asleep for?"

"For about half an hour I think," Gambit replied.

He turned his attention to the TV, where the end credits for 'Spooks' were just appearing on the screen.

"I think you must've nodded off halfway through that," he continued, gesturing towards the TV. "Honestly, I don't know why you bother with programs like that. You know as well as I do that it doesn't reflect reality one bit."

"Well it's entertaining I suppose, " Purdey answered, shrugging her shoulders.

"Entertaining enough for you to fall asleep you mean" he teased her. "Well I can't blame you. You've seen far more exciting things over the past 30 years, and then there's those men. Good looking actors, but not quite as interesting when you're married to the real thing is it?" he waggled his eyebrows at her suggestively.

"No, I suppose not" she replied, ignoring his teasing. Now it was her turn to tease. "But don't get too cocky and full of yourself Mike Gambit, or I might start considering trading you in for a younger model. Someone like Lucas for instance."

"Why. Because he's tall, dark and handsome?" he murmured, before leaning in to kiss her.

She responded to the kiss, but only briefly. "Well you're tall and handsome too. However, you're not that dark anymore," she said teasingly as she pulled at his hair, which was now laced with streaks of grey.

"Are you telling me I'm getting old, Mrs. Gambit?" A mock pained expression in his eyes.

She found it hard to suppress a giggle. "No, not old. Just….more mature if you like."

In response to this he grabbed her hand and started leading her upstairs.

"I'll show you mature," he said. "You won't want a younger model once I've showed you what I'm capable of, trust me."

Purdey laughed as she followed her husband upstairs. That dream had been fun while it lasted, but she was glad that it had been just that, just a dream. She loved her own life and wouldn't want to change it for the world.

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**Thanks for reading. I'd love one last review :) xx**


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